MY MUSEOLOGY

[Digital media consistently use images from Twombly's Untitled/ Bacchus series as illustrative content to accompany stories about the money dispute with the Twombly Foundation. They put me in mind of the violent sea (an unsurprising association if one considers the artist's Hero and Leandro inter alia), turned red like that horrific scene in Lord of the Flies following the fall of Piggy, or photographs I think I remember of unreal-red, carmine seas, dyed with the blood of whale-hunting. Additions to the dispute story have been in the press today, and so I think the world's emphasising value .] Courtauld's Picasso exhibition is tiny, comprised of two rooms or a vestibule and a room in which are hung 19 or so paintings. The arrangement is systematic and logical, although I must confess to having been influenced by the large-print booklet of the painting labels, which I always pick up because I feel awkward standing too long trying to read and consider what they say wh...

Visiting this made this morning utterly worthwhile and immeasurably inspiring.  It's exhausting, unnervingly despondent at points and, for all that, happily provocative.  I was accompanied by my best friend, some of whose commentary I'll include in this entry for its trenchant observations.  Arriving early meant we were among the first crush to enter the galleries, but that was no surprise given the breadth of publicity that has been spinning around The Ladder of Escape .  I took some notes, thought a lot, chattered a little, and lamented at not being able to take photographs or make a video.  This aside, I was there, and here is what I have to say about it; I'll use the three questions I've mentioned in earlier posts to structure the entry. Curation + Implied narrative/s There are over 160 pieces in the 13 galleries making up The Ladder of Escape which include painting, drawing and sculpture; an array of supports across canvas, velours paper, Masonite an...

This blog, ideally, should explore the culture of museology.  That's why I'm focusing on the staging of the Miró exhibition, because it will help me to understand the use of space for the showing of art.  The three questions I've chosen to ask of the exhibition go some way towards starting this in a more structured way.  This is what I suppose I want to get at with the first question What narrative or narratives does the show's curation seem to imply?   Have the curators tried to construct a single exhibition story, or a series of stories?  Whatever answers emerge from this will help to assess the extent to which the exhibition is a learning experience .  That interaction between the art in the space and the story or stories the show organisers intended causes a learning event since it is where spectators develop knowledge.  The final question, How does the staging of Miró here compare with the staging of Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons ? encourages f...